By By TOM NYHUIS / Niles Daily Star
Whenever the Brandywine Lady Cats and Buchanan Lady Bucks get together on the softball diamond, you're pretty much assured that you won't be disappointed with a dull game.
Tuesday afternoon was no exception as the two teams tangled on the Lady Bucks' home field with each coming away with a win.
Buchanan rallied in the seventh inning of game one to take an 8-7 victory and in the nightcap it was all the Bobcats as they left the field with an 8-0 win in the Lakeland Conference match up.
Brandywine (8-4, 5-1 LAC) took the early lead in game one, scoring three runs in both the third and fourth innings. The big hit in the fourth inning came off the bat of Angela Newman who spanked a three-run homer to give her team a 6-0 lead.
The bottom half of the inning saw Buchanan (8-5, 2-4 LAC) respond by pushing two runs across the dish to trail 6-2 after four innings. Brandywine tacked on their seventh run in the fifth to take a 7-2 lead.
In the sixth, Buchanan came charging back with a four run outburst. Courtney Miller stepped to the plate with two outs and two runners on and cranked a Kendra Zache pitch over the fence to cut the Bobcat lead to one, 7-6 after the Bucks had scored a run earlier in the inning.
Ashley Pointer, who stepped into the circle for the Lady Bucks, held Brandywine scoreless in their final at bat to keep a breath of hope for her team to pick up a big conference victory.
The seventh started off with Emily Ross picking up a base hit, Hillary Faulkner reaching on the Cats only error of the game. Two wild pitches by Zache allowed Ross to score and tie the game at seven. Holly Lucas reached first with a base on balls to bring freshman Alexis Lenox to the dish where she punched a single through the infield to push the winning run across.
"It was a tough first game," Brandywine coach Jim Meyers said. "But give Buchanan credit, they came back. They did it to us last year too, they came back and beat us in the last game at our place. You can never let up."
Brandywine scattered 13 hits in the game off the Bucks senior pitcher. Pointer, (5-4) struck out four and walked just one batter. Buchanan picked up eight hits off of Zache as she walked five batters and struck out 11.
"We knew we could play with them," Buchanan coach Mike Welsh said. "In the second game I threw the freshman and she has been throwing real well for us. She struggled a bit tonight and it snowballed a bit, but she's going to be a good one. My kids don't quit, we did it the other night against Watervliet, coming back with three runs in the seventh against a good pitcher and team, and we did it again tonight. It's going to do nothing but build confidence for these kids, we're still awful young with only one senior."
In the nightcap, Brandywine pushed four runs across in the fifth to take a 6-0, added two more in the seventh for the 8-0 win. Alexis Lenox was tagged with her first loss of the season giving up nine hits to the Bobcats and striking out three. Zache pitched her way to the Bobcat victory allowing just four hits and striking out 12 and allowed one free pass.
Buchanan will host the Buck Classic on Saturday with the first game scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. Brandywine will travel to the Mattawan Invitational also on Saturday.
Brandywine vs. Buchanan
at Buchanan
Game 1
Brandywine 003 310 0 – 7 13 1
Buchanan 000 204 2 – 8 8 1
WP- Ashley Pointer (5-4)
LP- Kendra Zache
Emily Ross (BU) 2- 1B
Alexis Lenox (BU) 1B, 2B
Destyni Dolan (BU) 2-1B
Courtney Miller (BU) HR
Angela Newman (BW) 1B, 2B, HR
Kendra Zache (BW) 2-1B, 2B
Becky Modlin (BW) 2-1B
Lauren McCombs (BW) 1B, 3B
Brooke Coshow (BW) 2B
Game 2
Brandywine 101 040 2 – 8 9 0
Buchanan 000 000 0 – 0 4 1
WP- Zache
LP- Lenox (3-1)
Holly Lucas (BU) 1B, 2B
Jayme O'Bryant (BU) 2B
Delaina Schroeder (BW) 3-1B, 2B
Lauren McCombs (BW) 2-1B
Records
Brandywine 8-4, 5-1 LAC
Buchanan 8-5, 2-4 LAC